Saturday, June 06, 2015

NYTimes.com: Ronnie Gilbert, whose crystalline, bold contralto provided distaff ballast for the Weavers, the seminal quartet that helped propel folk music to wide popularity and establish its power as an agent of social change, died on Saturday in Mill Valley, Calif. She was 88. Hat tip to Steve Stilwell.

NYTimes.com: Ruth Duskin Feldman, who died on May 18 at 80, was a regular panelist, and perhaps the best known of the comparatively few girls, on “The Quiz Kids,” the torrentially popular show of the 1940s. Broadcast nationwide from Chicago on NBC, it tested its young combatants weekly with rigorous questions in math, science, literature and much else. (“What would I be carrying home,” one question ran, “if I brought an antimacassar, a dinghy, a sarong and an apteryx?”) Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Friday, June 05, 2015

Stephen King's 'The Stand' Poised to Add TV Miniseries at Showtime: Before it hits a movie theater near you, Stephen King‘s epic postapocalyptic novel “The Stand” will take a revolutionary detour to the small screen, as Warner Bros. and CBS Films are in talks with Showtime to mount an eight-part miniseries that will culminate in a big-budget feature film, multiple individuals familiar with the ambitious project have told TheWrap.

NYTimes.com: Will Holt, a songwriter whose lyrics for the 1970 musical “The Me Nobody Knows” were nominated for a Tony Award, and whose Latin-tinged folk song “Lemon Tree” became a musical signpost of the 1960s, covered by myriad artists and finding its way into advertising and the literature of the Vietnam War, died on Sunday in Los Angeles. He was 86. Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

My sister, Francelle (that's her on the right) has been through more dark times than anybody I know, yet she's always come through and managed to find the light. She still has her zest for travel and adventure, and she's been a real help to me in recent months. Happy birthday, Francelle.

My theory is that you can't go wrong with a book by Ross Thomas. Cast a Yellow Shadow isn't without its flaws, but it's also stuffed with all of Thomas' virtues: great dialogue, fine descriptive writing, and insightful offhand comments about politics and politicians and the world situation. Not to mention McCorkle and Padillo, two guys who are excellent company. This was the second book to feature Mac and Padillo, coming along after Thomas' Edgar-winning The Cold War Swap, at the end of which Padillo was presumed dead. Mac knows better and when he opens a bar in Washington, D. C., he considers Mac a full partner. (Their original bar in Germany was destroyed in the previous book.) Mac has pretty good life, a nice income, and is happily married. Things change when Padillo turns up again. Certain members of the government of a South African country want Padillo to assassinate their ambassador. (The ambassador wants this, too.) When he refuses, they kidnap Mac's wife and use her as leverage. What's to be done? Padillo calls in some favors and gets three double (or maybe triple) agents to help out. As in just about any Thomas novel, you can count on plenty of double (or maybe triple) crosses. A good rule in these books is to trust no one to be what he or she seems, other than Mac and Padillo because that's the rule they follow. They know there will be betrayals, even if they don't always know by whom and in what fashion they'll come. As is often the case with Thomas, the plot is very complicated.This book was published in 1967, and contemporary readers might boggle at things like the difficulty of getting telephones installed in automobiles and setting up a four-way conference call, but in most ways the novel doesn't seem dated at all.And I can't resist quoting one line, among many, that made me smile:"You watch television much?" Padillo asked."Some," I said. "It's like China. If you ignore it, it just gets worse."

NYTimes.com: Dudley Williams, an East Harlem prodigy who dazzled Alvin Ailey company audiences as a leading dancer for more than four decades, performing into his 60s, died over the weekend at his home in Manhattan. He was 76. Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

Today would have been Judy's and my 50th wedding anniversary. It was a day we'd talked about a little and looked forward to a lot. Judy had really hoped to be around for it, but it didn't work out that way. She came up six months and seven days short. I haven't written much about her illness here because she didn't want me to. She was a private person and stoic in facing her illness. She was steel. One day a few months before she died, we were talking about what might happen, and my voice cracked. I probably had tears in my eyes. Judy said, "Don't be maudlin. If I die, I die, and that's it. We've done all we can." Steel? Titanium is more like it. Never once did I see her cry or weaken. It must have been tough because she went through a lot. Some of the chemo treatments were brutal, though I'm the only one who ever knew because to everyone else, she was relentlessly cheerful and polite. When ever anyone asked how she was doing, she'd always say, "Fine." Nobody was ever going to hear her complain, except me, and that was the way it was. I may have mentioned before that one of the nurses called me and said this about Judy: "That Mrs. Crider was always a lady, always dressed so nice, she never complained, not once."The last week that she was in the hospital, I asked if she wanted to watch The Young and the Restless, and she said she didn't. "But it's your favorite soap," I said. "Bill," she said, "you just don't know how bad I feel." That's a close as she ever came to complaining.We dated (a quaint, old-fashioned custom, whippersnappers) for several years before we married, and in all we knew each other for well over 50 years. That's a lot of memories, little things we shared that nobody else knows about -- jokes, trivial incidents, favorite songs and movies -- all things that nobody knows now except me. Every day there's some little something that I want to tell her, that I know would make her smile, but that wouldn't mean a thing to anyone else. It's taken me a while to get used to being in the house alone, but I'm doing better at it. It's taken me even longer to do other things. We loved going to movies and for many years we went just about every week. I've managed to get to one movie in the last six months and that was only recently (Mad Max: Fury Road). I don't like going out alone. I still haven't been to a restaurant alone. Eating out was a lot of fun for the two of us. It wouldn't be so much fun for just me. I've been out with friends, and that's okay. Sooner or later I'll make it out on my own, I think, but it might be a while.What with my books and writing and the Internet, I manage to keep busy, and most of the time I can keep my mind occupied. Distraction is good in cases like mine. Sometimes grief sneaks up on me, though. I have a feeling it's going to be doing that for a long time. When we were young and living in Brownwood, Texas, the local paper would often publish before-and-after shots of couples on their 50th anniversary, one shot of them when they were married and a current one. Judy would often say, "We must remember not to do that." So she's probably get me for this if she were here. This is the closest thing I have to an "after." It was taken in Sonoma in August last year. I think Judy was as beautiful as ever.

If you think of it today or this evening, raise a glass to me and Judy on what would have been our 50th. That will be our celebration.

“How to Read Disreputably” (by Kevin Mims) | SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN: Kevin Mims is a short-story writer and essayist whose stories have appeared in many literary magazines and in EQMM and AHMM. His essays have appeared in the New York Times and many other newspapers. He last contributed a post to this site almost exactly a year ago. He returns with a piece focused entirely on reading and readers. It will bring back some vivid memories for those of us who used to carry “pocket books” around in pockets or bags.—Janet Hutchings

American Nobel chemistry laureate Irwin Rose dies at 88: American Nobel laureate Irwin Rose, a biochemist whose groundbreaking work helped in the development of treatments for cervical cancer and cystic fibrosis, died on Tuesday, the University of California, Irvine said. He was 88.

NYTimes.com: Jim Bailey, an actor and singer who specialized in performing in drag, especially in the guise of pop divas like Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand, died on Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 77. Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.

PodOmatic | Best Free Podcasts: This month’s selection, from EQMM’s Passport to Crime department, is a story in translation. “Checkmate in Chimbote” by Belgium’s Bob Laerhoven, past winner of the Hercule Poirot Prize, is read by his translator, Josh Pachter. The story first appeared in English in EQMM’s June 2014 issue.

When Judy and I saw this in the theater, we both thought it was very funny. We also thought it was kind of a mess. Warren Beatty plays Jay Billington Bulworth, a senator from California who's running for reelection. He's pretty much a cinch to lose, and he's tired of the whole game. So, using a very old crime-fiction gimmick, he hires someone to kill him. Anybody who's read a crime novel or two knows that as soon as someone does that, he immediately finds a lot of reasons to live. And that's what happens here. There's a twist to the contract deal, though. Bulworth sells out to the insurance crowd, offering them his vote for a $10 million policy, payable to his daughter. Knowing he's going to be killed, Bulworth starts drinking, smoking pot, and having a great time. He says what he's really thinking. Naturally the public falls in love with him. Now it looks like he might actually win the election. More twists follow. This is a message movie, as well as a comedy. Sometimes it feels as if Beatty is sitting in the seat beside you, nudging you with his elbow and saying, "Get it? Get it?" Or maybe hitting you on the head with a hammer instead of nudging. I think it helps if you're a little to the left if you want to enjoy the movie, but nobody will need the nudging. The points are all obvious.The cast is great. Halle Berry has never looked better, Beatty is awkwardly funny, and Oliver Platt, Don Cheadle, and Jack Warren all do fine turns. The ending is pretty messed up, another twist that you'll see coming, I'm sure. And the message at the end really goes over the top. No nudging. More like a sledgehammer. But I enjoyed the movie. It's nearly 20 years old not, but I think you'll find that things haven't changed a bit.

Coming in August. This is great stuff. There's an excellent introduction by Gary Lovisi, and some of you may have read Ed Gorman's rave reviews of The Evil Days on his blog or elsewhere. These two books are fine examples of a masterly writer's work.

STARK HOUSE PRESS: Bruno Fischer was born in Berlin, Germany, on June 29, 1908. He emigrated with his family to the U.S. in 1913, and was educated at the Rand School of Social Sciences (established by the American Socialist Party). Fischer became a sports reporter for the Long Island Daily Press in 1929, and followed this with stints at the Labor Voice and the Socialist Call, even running as a Socialist candidate for the New York state senate. He then turned to fiction, selling his first story, a horror tale, in 1936, followed by many more pulp stories and mystery novels, including the Ben Helm series. His last novel, The Evil Days, written after a lengthy writer's block, is considered by many to be his best. He passed away during a Mexican vacation on March 16, 1992.

First, a little personal story. When Judy and I went to the Edgar Awards back in 2007 (I was nominated for Best Short Story; I didn't win), we went to the pre-banquet cocktail party. It wasn't easy to get a seat in the big room where we were. There were only a few tables, small ones, scattered around, and there were only two chairs at each table. Judy and I had gotten there early, so we had a table. I saw Paul Levine standing across the room. I'm not sure how I knew it was him, but I'd read one of his books, Solomon and Lord, on the plane, and I wanted to tell him how much I'd enjoyed it. So I got up and went over and told him. I'm sure he doesn't remember it, but I was happy to do it. I like telling someone I've enjoyed a book he's written, especially if I'm just read it happened to see him by coincidence. Then I went back to my table, only to find that Judy had company. Someone was sitting in my chair. It was Stephen King, and he and Judy were carrying on a conversation. I felt like a fifth wheel. Later I asked her why she hadn't saved my seat. She said, "Because that was Stephen King." Now that we have that out of the way, I should mention that after reading Solomon and Lord, I bought several more books by Levine, including others in that series and a couple in another series, this one about Jake Lassiter. Steve Solomon and Victoria Lord are partners in a law firm in Miami, an odd couple who make a great team, and they're also lovers. Jake Lassiter is a lawyer in Miami, too, and a former NFL linebacker, who, like Solomon and Lord, is a dedicated defense attorney. In Bum Rap, Levine brings the three of them together.Steve Solomon is in jail for having killed a Russian strip-club owner, a crime that Steve swears to Victoria that he's not guilty of. Victoria hires a burned-out Jake Lassiter to defend Steve, who once again tells the story of his innocence. [WARNING, WILL ROBINSON: SPOILER ALERT. He's lying. END OF SPOILER ALERT.] Complications ensue. The include a beautiful Russian B-Girl who was in the room with Steve when the strip-club owner was shot, the FBI, diamond smuggling, the fact that Lassiter finds himself falling for Victoria, and lots of legal maneuvering, some of which is even on the up-and-up. It's a nice package of fast-moving legal-thriller entertainment, and I'm looking forward to the next book in the Solomon and Lord and Lassiter series.And if you have Amazon Prime, you can get this one for free this month. I certainly would recommend that you do.

But all the hassle is totally worth it if they can catch 5%, right?ABC News: An internal investigation of the Transportation Security Administration revealed security failures at dozens of the nation’s busiest airports, where undercover investigators were able to smuggle mock explosives or banned weapons through checkpoints in 95 percent of trials, ABC News has learned.

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Actress Betsy Palmer Dead at Age 88: Actress Betsy Palmer, whose long film, stage and television career began back in 1951 in the early days of live television and who later found a new generation of fans in her role as Mrs. Vorhees in the cult film classic Friday the 13th, has died at the age of 88, it was announced today by her longtime manager Brad Lemack. Lemack reports that Palmer died of natural causes on May 29th at a hospice care center near her Danbury, Connecticut home.

The Storm Giants - Kindle edition by Pearce Hansen. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. Everett has a high tolerance for pain – but that’s only natural considering his childhood dentist was a Nazi war criminal that did all his work without anesthetics. Now his widow is knocking on Everett’s door, looking for help retrieving a cache of death camp gold. His mom Bambi is on her death bed and still managing to foul things up for him. His wife Kerri is being forced to examine things about their life together that she’s successfully ignored since the beginning. And his son Raymond is watching his every move -- he wants to be just like his daddy when he grows up.